


Home

by Hanna



Category: inFAMOUS: Second Son
Genre: Alternate Universe, Rowe Bro feels, one where Delsin was taking to Curdun Cay, so many rowe bro feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 18:21:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5174345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hanna/pseuds/Hanna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>“Del, I saw you take your first steps. You didn’t walk. You just ran and never stopped. But you always came home. Always. Even when you were in pain after losing our parents and said you’d run away, you came back.” Delsin sobbed into Reggie’s chest and clung to him. “And I knew you would. The same way that I know that, no matter what she did to you, you will always be my little brother. Del, you came</i> home.”</p><p>Delsin runs into Hank four years earlier and is taken to Curdun Cay Station. But Delsin Rowe always comes home.</p>
            </blockquote>





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**Author's Note:**

> I am retired from writing fanfiction.
> 
> Really.
> 
> I'm writing my novels now. Not fanfiction. Someone tell that to this monster that I wrote in three days in the middle of nanowrimo, yeah?

When Delsin was sixteen the DUP established itself as a protector of society, locking up the newly reclassified bio-terrorists to take them off the street and away from the normal people living their normal lives.

Sucks to be a Conduit he thought idly, and didn’t think much else about it. Why should he? It wasn’t like he was one. Humming as he considered a wall and the spray paint in his bag, he grabbed a sheet of paper and started to draw.

It wasn’t until he was nineteen that he thought any more about it.

He was in the city with Reggie at the time on Reggie’s rare day off (as it turned out, police worked all days of the week, especially in small towns like Salmon Bay where there were only a handful of them) and Delsin would never admit how much he’d looked forward to it. He liked having his brother all to himself and was determined not to mar the day with any arguments.

He’d even avoided being arrested for a week before hand.

A few shopping bags in their hands they were discussing what to get for lunch (Delsin wanted pizza, Reggie wanted fish and chips) when they passed the men in armour. Delsin looked up in interest.

“Hey, they’re those DUP guys, right?” he asked, and caught sight of the logo on the man’s sh0ulder just as he asked it. “Huh. Must be a Conduit running around or something.”

“Let’s just stay out of their way,” Reggie said. “Big men with guns, Del. Not safe to stare.” Delsin rolled his eyes.

“You’re a big man with a gun and you don’t scare me,” he said.

Delsin won the right to have pizza for lunch that day, but it didn’t much matter; he never got to have it.

As they were heading to the nearest pizza place a commotion drew their attention in the park and before Reggie could hold him back Delsin was taking off to see what was going on, Reggie close on his heel.

“Delsin, let’s just get pizza,” he said. “Come on.”

“I want to see what’s happening,” Delsin said. “Come on, aren’t you even a little curious?”

Reggie sighed.

“Fine. But we get fish and chips instead,” he muttered. “Slow down, Del.”

At first on arriving at the park, Delsin was disappointed that they’d missed the action. That was when the man arrived, cops and DUP on his tail, running right through the crowd.

It just so happened that Delsin was the closest to him when he decided he wanted a hostage and he grabbed him.

Reggie yelled and Delsin cried “Reg!” as he struggled in the man’s grip as the police and DUP fell back.

“Let him go,” one cop called. “Let him go now.” Delsin’s eyes wide with panic, they went even wider when the man called _smoke_ up his arms. The DUP agents had their guns up instantly.

“Let him go!” one called. “Don’t shoot unless you have a clear shot!”

Delsin assumed that was to his fellows, as he was slightly more concerned with the fact that his captor was shaking his head.

“I don’t want to hurt nobody!” he said. “Just let me go and I’ll let him go!”

None of the guns wavered and Delsin looked at Reggie, panicked; Reggie had left his gun at home that day. His lips formed Reggie’s name over and over, silently, and Reggie was trying to calm him down.

“Del, it’s going to be okay,” he said. “Just… just hold still and…”

The arm that wasn’t holding him around the neck was brought in front of him, smoke swirling around it.

“Just let me go!” the man repeated, sounding desperate. “C’mon! I have a family!”

Delsin didn’t think before grabbing his arm, determined to throw him off or at least stop him from hurting anybody. The world went black and he could _see_ … the man, in his _mind_ , what was _happening_ …

When he woke up the man was cuffed and he was on the ground, Reggie by his side, cradling him. A cop knelt by them.

“Are you alright?” he asked. “Do you need me to call an ambulance?” Reggie looked at Delsin, who was assessing that everything still worked.

“I think I’m okay,” he croaked. “I just need to…” he struggled to his feet and Reggie held him tightly.

“Del, don’t push yourself,” he said. “Maybe you should go to the hospital, get checked out.”

“I just want that pizza,” Delsin said. “Come on Reg.”

He stepped away from him and two things happened at once.

First, Reggie followed him, not willing to let him go, which wasn’t a surprise to Delsin. The second thing was.

He turned to _smoke_.

Panicked, he turned to Reggie and tried to lurch into his arms but ran _through_ him and was barely able to stop himself before collapsing. Reggie, eyes wide, ran to his side and he clung to him as the crowd backed away from them and a watching DUP agent’s gun snapped up.

“Bio-terrorist!” he said and his fellows, having safely locked the other man away in their truck, turned at the shout.

“No!” Delsin croaked, “I’m not…”

“He’s not!” Reggie cried as he held him tighter. “He’s not, he’s my brother, he’s not…”

Already they were wrestling Reggie away from him and Delsin cried out in panic.

“Reggie!” he said as they hauled him to his feet. “Reggie!”

“Delsin!” Reggie said, “No, just let me- he’s not a bio-terrorist! He’s my brother! Please!”

Delsin lurched out of their arms and felt himself turn to smoke again as he ran, tripping and falling heavily to his knees as soon as he was solid again and they were on him in an instant, cuffing his hands behind his back.

“Reggie!” he cried, voice thin and thready, heart beating too fast in his chest. “Reggie!”

“Please don’t,” Reggie was begging, “He’s my brother, he’s…”

The last thing Delsin saw of him through his tears was Reggie being held back by two DUP agents, kicking out at them and being knocked to the ground.

“No, Reggie!” he said as he was wrestled to a seat in the armoured truck and the door shut behind him. “Reggie!”

The truck drove away and he could hear nothing but his own sobs.

XX

The woman who met them at the door raised a brow on seeing two of them; the man was assessing everything, eyes alert, and Delsin was finally quiet- mostly in shock.

“You were going for one,” she said.

“This one manifested on the streets after that one grabbed him to use as a human shield,” the agent holding Delsin said. “Keeps denying he’s one of them but I saw him turn to smoke.”

“No,” Delsin croaked, finding his voice. “I don’t know what happened but I’m _not_ … just let me go home, please…”

The woman stepped forward and lifted his chin; her grip was surprisingly strong. He raised his eyes to look at her and saw she had red hair pulled back in a bun. She examined his tear-stained cheeks for a moment and stepped back.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Delsin,” he whispered, breath heaving in his chest. “Delsin Rowe. Please, I just want to go home… my brother…”

Her gaze didn’t waver at all.

“You are a bio-terrorist, Delsin,” she said. “You’ll have to accept that.” She turned to the agent. “Did his powers match the other one’s?” she asked and what the hell sort of question was that?

“Yes ma’am,” he said. “From what I could see anyway. Turned to smoke like him.” She nodded thoughtfully.

“Very well,” she said. “Put him in a cell.” He struggled weakly but he was exhausted and frightened and he wanted Reggie, he wanted his big brother.

“Reggie,” he whispered as he was escorted into the prison.

XX

The first thing the woman, Augustine, said when he was brought before her later, hardly better rested, was “Hello, Delsin.”

He said nothing. The cuffs weighed his arms down and they’d had to take his shirt off him and replace it with a jumpsuit, he was struggling to move and had to be half-dragged, unused to the weight of them.

“Delsin,” she said, voice softening now they were alone, “I know it’s frightening, but I have to ask you some questions.” Still he said nothing. “Before today were you aware of what you are?”

“I’m not,” he said at that. “I don’t know what happened but… I was just out with my brother. He’s a cop, it’s his day off…” Augustine held her hand up and he slowly stopped talking.

“Reggie,” she said. “I’ve seen your record, Delsin. It’s an impressively long list for a nineteen year old.” Delsin looked up at her in shock. “It’s okay, you’re not in trouble for it. Tell me about Reggie.”

Delsin shook his head.

“Delsin, please,” she said. “I would rather talk to you as an adult, you are no longer a child. But you have to work with me here.”

“I want to go home,” Delsin said, his voice very small.

“I know you do.” Augustine sat back in her chair. “But you can’t.”

XX

Over the next weeks Delsin grew used to the routine. The cuffs were never removed and it was galling to not have use of his hands, to be fed and bathed by the agents.

“I can do that myself,” he complained. “That’s… really?”

He missed home so much.

Reggie is looking for me, he told himself. Reggie will find me. I’ll get home.

Augustine seemed very interested in the manner of his manifestation, and in the nature of his powers.

“You said it only happened after you grabbed his hand,” she said. “Why did you do that?”

“I had to do something,” Delsin said. “I don’t know, there wasn’t a lot else I could do.” He hadn’t seen the other man since their arrival and was grateful for that, at least.

“And what happened after that?” she asked. He was quiet. “Delsin, you’ve told me everything else.”

He looked down at the table.

“I don’t know,” he finally said. “I just… I saw him in my head, heard his voice, and when I woke up I was on the ground and Reggie was there holding me and…”

“Saw him in your head?” Augustine asked, leaning forward. Delsin nodded.

“He was behind bars and I heard him saying…” he could hardly believe it, still. “That he’d spent his life behind bars and… I don’t want this,” he said. “I don’t want any of this.”

“I know.” Her voice was softer now. “Delsin, if we take those cuffs off will you behave?” To have the use of his hands again… he’d promised Reggie to behave a hundred times and broken it. “Do bear in mind that I’ve read your record.”

“I want them off,” he said. “Please, if I can’t go home, at least…”

“Promise me you’ll behave, and I will remove them.”

There was only one person in the world he could never lie to, and that was Betty. Looking into Augustine’s eyes he saw someone entirely different, harder and crueller than Betty ever was, and shuddered, knowing that he’d found a second one.

“I’ll behave,” he said and she smiled.

“Good,” she said and crossed the table, lifted his hands onto the top and undid them. He breathed a sigh of relief as he rubbed his now-free wrists.

“Thank you,” he said.

“You are very welcome,” she said.

XX

Augustine taught him to use his newly-acquired smoke power. It was brutal and she showed no mercy. Wave upon wave of false DUP troopers and other enemies were thrown at him and while he knew they weren’t real that didn’t stop the guns from hurting and that didn’t meant that he fell any softer. Her disappointed face was infuriating as she watched him struggle to pick himself up again.

“Again, Delsin,” she said. “I know you can do better than that.”

He was mostly quiet, but a lifetime of Reggie yelling at him hadn’t stopped him from spraying every available surface of Salmon Bay with art of some kind, and Augustine and hers wouldn’t either. He used whatever was available; chalk, discarded pens, sometimes pieces of concrete he took from the arena to scratch into the walls.

He never signed it. He never had to. She always knew it was him.

“Delsin,” she sighed, but there was a gleam in her eyes, “You told me you’d behave.” The threat was implicit and he didn’t want the cuffs on again. He drew in a shaky breath.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Please just don’t cuff me again.” His hands shook.

“Don’t do it again, Delsin,” she said. She worked him extra-hard in the arena that day and, while he never did stop, he accepted what the consequences would be. But he wasn’t about to stop, to give up something he loved, what made him who he was.

Not for Reggie, and not for Augustine.

XX

He turned twenty a few months after his arrival in Curdun Cay. It wasn’t how he’d planned to spend his birthday.

He was called before Augustine and she had someone else with her, a hunched over lad who was hiding his face.

“Happy birthday, Delsin,” she said. “This is Eugene, he’s the one who creates all those illusions in the Arena.” Eugene didn’t look up and Delsin looked uncertainly between the two of them. “Your ability is power copying. As a birthday present, I want to give you his.”

Delsin’s eyes widened and Eugene looked up in sudden panic.

“No,” he protested and flinched away at her mild look. Delsin was nudged forward by the agent behind him.

“But,” he said.

“Delsin, you wouldn’t be so rude as to refuse your birthday present would you?”

They both knew he had no choice. He took Eugene’s hands and tried not to see his story, knew that even more brutal training was to follow.

XX

Eugene’s power let him turn invisible. Even though he knew that Augustine could track him still, it was a relief to hide from the cameras that watched his every move for even a minute.

XX

It was rare that Delsin thought about his life at Salmon Bay now. It hurt too much to remember the freedoms he had once enjoyed. Occasionally Augustine asked about his family and he told her that his parents were dead.

“I’m very sorry,” she said, sounding not sorry at all. “What happened to them, Delsin?” Delsin tried not to think about it, as a rule.

“A Conduit killed them,” he said, staring straight forward at nothing. “I was ten.” Augustine was quiet for a moment.

“You’re not the same,” she said. “I know you, Delsin. You are not a killer.” Delsin looked up at that in surprise. “Curdun Cay is your home now.”

XX

It was amazing what you could get used to.

He got used to the food, he got used to the lack of privacy and the other detainees around him. He missed home and he missed Reggie, he missed Reggie so much, but what could he do about it? He couldn’t go home and he’d long since stopped fooling himself that Reggie could get him out of here.

What he missed the most were the open spaces.

At home he’d run on the beach all hours of the day he could, he’d climb the cliffs and trees and the buildings and stare at the sky, doze off on the roof of the longhouse only to be woken in the evening but Reggie calling his phone and yelling at him for being on the roof again.

The walls closed around him here, without even a window to see out of, and the only place he even remotely approached comfort was in the training area where he could let go of it all, unleash all his anxiety and tension in a burst of static or dash through the vents and do his best to forget about it all.

XX

When he was nearly twenty-two Fetch was brought to Curdun Cay. She was broken, curled in her cell sobbing for months. He never saw her at dinner or anywhere after catching a glimpse of pink hair being brought through the mess. He went to her cell door once to try to talk to her and she ignored him.

His twenty-second birthday present was her neon powers. She didn’t even move as he took them and he felt terrible for doing it, but he was lo0king forward to learning to use them, to spending more time in the arena. The arena was all he had now, and the more powers he was given the more he could do.

He started seeing her taken to Augustine and as the months went by she actually emerged from her cell. A little awkward, he sat with her at dinner once.

“Hey, I’m sorry about the whole taking your powers thing,” he waggled his fingers. “You know Augustine, when she wants to give you something…” Fetch looked up at him.

“That’s what you were doing?” she asked. He looked a little embarrassed.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m a power copier, she keeps giving me new ones and throwing me into the Arena to learn to use them. Woman can be brutal,” he added and Fetch laughed for the first time.

XX

Time passed. Curdun Cay never got better, but it never got worse, and his burgeoning friendship with Fetch became a real one.

(He never thought to question why he was allowed to spend so much time with her when the others were locked away all the time. He was just grateful for it.)

He got to know Eugene, who gave him a weary look when he first sat with him.

“You’ve already taken my powers,” he said. “What more do you want?”

“I’m sorry,” Delsin said. “I had to. You know what she’s like.” Eugene shuddered and curled in on himself.

“Yeah,” he said softly. “I do.”

Augustine introduced him to Hank, the Conduit who had taken him hostage in the park so long ago.

“Hey man, I’m sorry,” he told him. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just wanted to get away.”

“I know,” Delsin said, because he did. How often had he dreamed of escaping? He’d tried when he was first brought in with no success, and he knew he’d have no more now, even with his expanded powerset. Augustine had carefully introduced them and trained him to use them, she knew what he could do, what they could all do.

When he was nineteen and ever defiant he’d never have imagined that he could feel as defeated as he did now.

He never saw Hank again, and was glad for it.

He, Fetch and Eugene became friends, and the atmosphere seemed a little warmer. They shared something of their own stories and fears and lives with each other. Fetch told them in halting tones about her brother, Eugene about the bullies and Heavens Hellfire, his favourite video game ever.

They learned to accept life at Curdun Cay.

XX

It had been four years, when the DUP was dismantled and Delsin and the others were transferred to military custody. Sitting in a van with Fetch, Eugene and Hank Delsin couldn’t see where they were going. He didn’t suppose it mattered. They’d be locked up again when they got there.

When Hank produced a paperclip between his teeth and grinned Delsin felt hope for the first time in years.

“Holy shit!” he said as the APC careened over, landed hard and he banged his head against the side. The others fled and Hank fell on his way out, the door landing on him and Delsin hesitated, unsure whether to help him or run.

He looked around and his eyes went wide. They were…

“Home,” he whispered. That was the longhouse, decked out for festivities, and his heart ached. He started forward as if in a dream, Hank forgotten, the military forgotten as people came to the door, attracted by the noise.

As _Reggie_ came to the door, gun in his hand.

“Reggie,” he called, voice cracking as he broke into a run, “Reggie…”

The gun dropped from Reggie’s fingers.

“ _Delsin_?” he asked as Delsin threw himself into his arms and they sank to the floor, the tribe surrounding them, murmurs of Delsin’s name passing through the crowd.

XX

Augustine came to the longhouse.

Delsin had been accepted back as easily as if he’d never been taken, given new clothes (his old clothes as a matter of fact and that Reggie had kept them this whole time…), his jumpsuit taken to be burned and he felt like weeping, the last four years weighing heavily on him, expecting the guards at every turn, but he was _home_.

He should never have stayed.

“I’m here for Delsin Rowe,” Augustine said, voice crisp, and he froze. “I know he’s here.”

“Get out of here,” Reggie told him and Betty squeezed his hand.

“Go,” she said. “We’ll be fine.”

Ashamed of his fear, he fled.

They weren’t fine. When Delsin returned the DUP were gone (they’d looked for him but this was his home turf, this was his place, he’d never forgotten the places he had once hid from Reggie and it all came back so easily, his feet taking him exactly where he needed to go) but Betty had concrete in her leg, half the tribe did, and his hands clenched into fists as tears welled up in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I should have never stayed, I should have…”

“Turned yourself in?” Reggie asked. “I would never have let them take you again. I’d have died first.”

The only way the concrete was coming out was the way it went in. Delsin knew that. And as much as it terrified him, the prospect of going after Augustine, he’d only just found the tribe again and he wasn’t going to let them suffer because of him.

“I need to go after her,” he said to Reggie. “I can absorb the powers of other Conduits, it’s my power, and if I can take hers…”

“Hey,” Reggie protested, “You just got out of her custody. Are you sure you want to do this?”

Delsin drew in a deep breath.

“No,” he said. “But I have to, Reg. You don’t have to come…”

Reggie’s eyes went hard.

“After they took you I hated myself,” he said. “I looked for you for years but I couldn’t touch you, couldn’t get you out of that hole she locked you in. I’ve only just got you back, Del. I’m not letting you out of my _sight_.”

Delsin had learned to be independent the last four years. He forgot it all in a heartbeat as he threw himself into Reggie’s arms and wept.

XX

When they reached the bridge Delsin hesitated. A barricade had been set up and destroyed (he saw Fetch’s handiwork in that, and Eugene’s) and the bridge was still intact but they had a checkpoint at the other side and oh _god_ they knew his face and…

“Del, you don’t have to do this,” Reggie said. “We can go home, she won’t come back. No one blames you for this. We just got you back, you’re home.”

“She will,” Delsin said, hollow certainty filling him. “She knows me, she knows I’ll go back there, she’ll come back in a week, in a fortnight and when I’ve sat and watched my people die I’ll go back with her and…” Reggie caught him in his arms.

“Del,” he breathed. “What did she do to you?”

He didn’t question his need to go to Seattle after that and held his hand as they crossed the bridge. Delsin kept his head down but it didn’t matter; they recognised him. Of course they did.

“Reggie, run,” he said grimly as he pulled smoke from a destroyed car into himself and drew in a deep breath.

He used what Augustine had taught him to decimate them and when it was over Reggie was staring at him. He pulled himself together long enough to get them somewhere safe and then sat down heavily on a bench.

“Del,” he whispered, “What _was_ that?”

Delsin stared straight forward and felt like a stranger to his own brother. He didn’t like it one bit.

“They had an arena in Curdun Cay,” he said. “She taught me to use my powers. Gave me new ones and taught me to use them. It was…” he’d loved it. It was the only thing he’d ever liked about that place, but he’d _loved_ it, loved being able to cut loose and let it all out.

“Del,” Reggie breathed, pulling him close and Delsin buried himself against his big brother’s chest.

“I don’t know if there were civilians back there.” His voice cracked. “Augustine, what she made me-” Reggie pulled back and for a moment Delsin thought he was going to disown him, cross the bridge again, go back to Salmon Bay and away from his bio-terrorist little brother. He looked him in the eye instead.

“Delsin,” he said and Delsin’s gaze turned to him. “You are my brother. I looked for you for years, I never stopped trying to find you and rescue you. I know who you are and if Augustine knows who you are as well then she knows that you’re a good man.”

“Am I?” Delsin asked.

XX

Augustine’s grip on the city started with commandeering a tower in the middle of Seattle. From there she built barricades and checkpoints and Delsin knew they had to move now, before her hold on the city was solid.

“Reggie, we need to get to her,” he said. “But I don’t know how… they’ll have hundreds of DUPs around that tower and I can’t fight that many off.”

He could. He’d done it before, in the arena, had lost himself in the battle and when he’d come back to himself being told with great pleasure by Augustine that he’d killed a hundred men and the hostages they held and he’d felt like throwing up.

It wasn’t real, but it _was_.

“I’ve seen what you can do,” Reggie said. “Del, I know you can do it. You’re not the sort to hide from things. What happened to you?”

Delsin tried to find the words to describe Curdun Cay, to describe how even through the horrors he’d gotten used to it, that he’d never ceased to long for home, for the person he’d been at home, not this… not what she was trying to make him. That even though he’d fought to hold who he was he’d felt himself slipping, felt himself losing himself and that her words had started to sound reasonable.

He couldn’t find them.

“I need to make contact with Fetch and Eugene. I know they’re here somewhere,” he said instead. Reggie frowned.

“Fetch and Eugene?” he asked.

“The others in the truck with me,” he said. “I know they made it in. Fetch had the neon, and you remember the massive swords skewering the cars? That’s Eugene.”

He didn’t know what had happened to Hank. He didn’t want to work with Hank anyway. He hadn’t quite forgiven him for what had happened four years ago.

“Oh,” Reggie said. “I think they’re lying low for now. We need to move now, before she can really get a hold. You know that.” Delsin took a deep breath and nodded.

“Yeah,” he said. Reggie started smiling then.

“And I’ve been talking to my police contacts, and I found something. The DUP set up a communications centre- on the Space Needle.” Delsin supposed that he’d have been excited about that before all did, he did love the Space Needle. “I figure, with your…” he hesitated for a long time on the word, “Abilities,” he finally decided, “You could make short work of that and disrupt her before she can even start.”

Delsin smiled slowly, the idea of scoring a blow against Augustine igniting visceral pleasure in his belly. He wanted to hurt her. He wanted to…

He wrenched his mind from it. He couldn’t give in to his dark side, couldn’t be what she had made him. It wasn’t who he was.

“Del?” Reggie asked, anxiously.

“It sounds good,” Delsin said. “It sounds great. Let’s do it.”

XX

He’d always hated the cameras in Curdun Cay, recording their every move to Augustine, their every word. So when security cameras started going up around the city he couldn’t help himself; a smoke shot flew at it and it fell to pieces.

He could never do that in Curdun Cay. The moment he used his powers outside the arena the cuffs went back on and never came off, and he knew it. For a moment he was sure he could hear DUP voices and boots and gasped for breath, trying to contain the panic and remind himself that he was no longer in Curdun Cay and wasn’t going to be in trouble for it.

“Uh, Delsin?” Reggie said, pointing at the APC on the road and the men staring right at him.

“It’s him!” one of them said. “Get him! Take him alive if you can!”

Delsin had been taught how to take down enemies non-lethally. He didn’t often do it but he didn’t want Reggie to know he was a monster.

He killed only those he could not subdue and sat down heavily after. Real DUP men felt no different from the holograms Eugene had brought up for him. Reggie grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

“Not here,” he said. “We have to get somewhere safe. Come on.”

Safe apparently had hot chocolate, and at the smell Delsin came to life slowly, uncurling and staring at the mug before him, mouth watering. He hadn’t had hot chocolate since he’d been taken and…

Reggie laughed as he grabbed it and tipped it down his throat too fast to be advised, too fast to really taste it. He felt his throat burn and then stop as it healed and took the rest slower.

“Oh my god,” he said, “This is the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had.”

“Mum’s was better,” Reggie said, laughing.

“I haven’t had real food in four years,” Delsin informed him. “You promised me pizza.” Reggie’s gaze softened.

“Delsin, I’ll buy you a goddamn pizza shop if that’s what you want,” he said.

XX

Before they went anywhere, Delsin stole some spray paint. Holding the can in his hand he wasn’t sure what he’d do with it, but it felt good to have one again.

XX

Reaching the Space Needle was easy.

“So, uh, you do your thing,” Reggie said, staring up at the top, “And just… call me when you’re done, yeah?” Delsin couldn’t let Reggie go, if Reggie was gone he’d…

“You’re leaving me?” he asked, hating how childish it sounded. Reggie gripped his shoulders tight.

“Never,” he said. “But this isn’t something I can do, brother. I can’t get up there. You need to do this.” Delsin drew in a deep breath.

“Right,” he said. “Right.” At least Reggie wouldn’t see him kill them all, he thought.

It was terrifying how easy it was to kill them.

XX

There were a lot of DUP on top of the tower, but he’d taken out more projections. He had to remember that this wasn’t the arena, that if he got hurt that it was real. But Augustine had taught him well.

They didn’t stand a chance.

With the communication network down he stared out at Seattle and felt, for the first time since his escape, joy. There were no spaces more open than this, the sky was everywhere and he remembered the longhouse roof… he tipped his head back and sighed happily, then, on an impulse, tagged the Space Needle.

He phoned Reggie five minutes later.

“Hey Reg,” he said. “I’m on the Space Needle, the view is breathtaking. Are you sure you don’t want to be here?” Reggie laughed on the other end and it sounded like he was crying. “Reggie?”

“Delsin, that’s all you,” Reggie said. “That’s the little brother I lost four years ago.”

And maybe, Delsin thought, he stood a chance at getting himself back.

XX

Over a hot pizza Delsin felt human, felt normal. For a moment it was like he was nineteen again.

“This is still your favourite right?” Reggie asked. “Meatlovers?” Delsin laughed.

“Even if you’d bought supreme, I’d have kissed you,” he said. “And I hate supreme.” Reggie looked sad at that, put his slice down.

“Del,” he said, “What happened to you? What did she do?” Delsin stilled, dropped his slice as well.

“Reggie…” he hesitated.

“It’s okay,” Reggie said. “Enjoy your pizza. I doubt you want to think about that.”

He didn’t, but he needed Reggie to know.

“It’s dehumanising,” he said. “What happens there. When I arrived I was put in these cuffs that suppressed my powers and they had to feed us and wash us and…” he bit back the frustration and humiliation in the memory. “When she offered me a chance to get out of them if I behaved myself, I leapt at it. I was so grateful.” He looked down at the pizza, appetite now gone. “I was so grateful to her, Reg. I’d have promised anything to get out of those cuffs.” Reggie inhaled a sharp breath.

“Delsin,” he breathed, half reaching for him. “God, Delsin. I’m sorry.”

“Why?” he asked. “There’s nothing you could have done to stop them taking me.”

“I looked for you,” Reggie said. “Found you easily enough, knew where they’d taken you. But no matter what I did I couldn’t get near you. The DUP has so much power, they’re untouchable, and the bio- the people they lock up… you don’t have any rights anymore. No visitation rights, nothing. I couldn’t even _visit_ you.” His hand squeezed into a fist.

“They call us bio-terrorists there,” Delsin said. “It’s alright.”

“No it’s not,” Reggie said. “I used to believe that after Mum and Dad, I used to believe it but then you were taken and every time I heard the word I felt like hitting someone. You’re my brother. Whatever else you are, that’s the most important thing, Del.”

Whatever else he was. What was that? A monster?

“Reg,” he choked out, “She had Eugene make illusions of thugs holding hostages in the arena for me to fight. I couldn’t control myself in the arena. I was meant to save them, it was meant to teach me control. But I…” he shook as he wept and Reggie held him tightly.

“It wasn’t real,” he said. “Delsin, it wasn’t real. She was trying to make you a- a killer. You aren’t a killer. I know you. I’ve always known you.”

“Not for the last four years,” Delsin said through his tears. “That place, it changes you Reg. I don’t even know me.” Reggie put a hand on his heart.

“Del, I saw you take your first steps. You didn’t walk. You just ran and never stopped. But you always came home. Always. Even when you were in pain after losing our parents and said you’d run away, you came back.” Delsin sobbed into his chest and clung to him. “And I knew you would. The same way that I know that, no matter what she did to you, you will always be my little brother. Del, you came _home_.”

“Just like I always do,” Delsin whispered.

“Just like you always do,” Reggie said.

XX

With communications disrupted they had time to breathe, to plan. Delsin had to get to Eugene and Fetch, and while he knew Eugene would bunker down he knew Fetch would be watching the world around her carefully.

While in Curdun Cay he had tagged eagles everywhere he could; with chalk and dirt and with his powers in the arena (though never outside of it. He knew if he used them outside he’d be in cuffs in a heartbeat. He couldn’t do that. Not again.) He knew Fetch would see his tag on the Needle, would know he was here, but that didn’t mean that she’d know where he was.

The problem was, he couldn’t stay in one place very long because of the DUP, and he knew she would have a similar problem.

“How does one fugitive find another without the cops finding them?” he asked Reggie. “You have to know how it works, if only from your end.” Reggie snorted.

“I work a small town,” he said. “The only fugitive was you, and I knew your hiding spots, Delsin.”

Even before Curdun Cay Delsin wasn’t a good person. He looked down. Reggie’s tone softened.

“I didn’t mean that,” he said. “Del, look at me. You aren’t… you were just drawing on the walls. It’s nothing. I’ve never done a manhunt or anything.”

“Okay,” Delsin said. “Just… if you hear anything, let me know, alright?”

“Of course,” Reggie said. “I have to get back to the station. Will you be alright?” Delsin hesitated a long moment before nodding.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”

XX

Even before Reggie called Delsin had heard the news reports about a bio-terrorist serial killer and seen the footage. It was Fetch.

“It’s her,” he said when he picked up the phone. “It’s Fetch, Reg. I’m going to find her.”

“She’s killing people Delsin,” Reggie said. “You have to stop her.”

Delsin knew that she had a sordid past, but she wasn’t the killer type. Something else was going on here.

“She’s not a killer, Reg. I know her.”

“Delsin, just… be careful. I’m sending the location of the latest report to your phone.”

“Thanks, Reg,” he said. His phone pinged a minute after hanging up with the received location.

He was careful and quiet as he made his way across the city, not wanting to alert the DUP to his presence. It was inevitable that they’d be swarming the site, he knew that, but he didn’t have to attract them earlier.

There were a lot of police at the site. He called Reggie.

“Reg, I’m here. There are lot of police,” he said.

“They’re just doing their jobs,” Reggie said. “Try not to hurt them please, for me?” So are the DUP, Delsin thought, and didn’t say it.

“I won’t,” he said. “I’ll keep your boys in blue out of the line of fire.”

The more he restrained himself and subdued them, the easier it became. He was glad that it worked the other way too.

“Holy shit,” he said when he’d defeated the DUP troops and was staring at the man, strung up in neon. It was… flashy, to say the least. He snapped a picture and sent it to Reggie.

“Can you ID him?” he asked and heard Reggie whistle low.

“You know this girl?” he asked. He’d done worse in the arena himself. He didn’t say that.

“Yeah,” he said. “I know her, she’s just as flashy herself. She has pink hair, you know, and piercings like, everywhere.”

“And you really want to work with this girl?” Reggie asked. “Hang on, I’m IDing the guy. Get out of there.” Delsin drained the neon from a nearby sign and zipped up the side of the building, crouching on the roof.

“She’s my friend, Reg. I’ve done worse to the DUP and you know it.” Reggie sighed a little.

“I guess,” he said. “I just… hang on. I’ve got him. He’s a drug dealer.”

Of course.

“Her life was ruined by drugs,” he said. “When she arrived she was catatonic, broken- Augustine must have…”

“Maybe it’s not Augustine, maybe it’s just her,” Reggie said.

“Was it me who killed those troopers and any civilians unfortunate enough to get in the way, Reggie?” Delsin asked. “Was that _just me_?” Reggie sighed.

“Delsin… wait, there’s another report. Sending it to you now.”

“Got it,” Delsin said and hung up, zipped over to the new site. Fetch had left recently, he could see her trail. He didn’t bother to snap a picture this time, he knew this one was a dealer too, just followed it.

He emerged at a sniper’s nest. It was the girliest sniper’s nest he’d ever seen.

“I see you put my powers to good use,” Fetch said. “I’m still faster though.”

“Please don’t make me chase you, I really don’t want to chase you,” Delsin said. She laughed and hugged him.

“I’m glad you got out,” she said. “Looked like you were seeing a ghost back when we crashed. What happened?”

Delsin thought of the tribe pierced with concrete, of the longhouse converted into a hospital.

“That was my home,” he said, voice tight. “Salmon Bay. I… I was home, Fetch. They welcomed me back.” Fetch’s eyes went wide.

“So why’d you come here?” she asked. “The DUPs are here, you know what they’ll do if they find you, Del.” Delsin sat down.

“Augustine followed me,” he said. “They told me to run, my brother and Betty, and I was scared, I knew I should have… but I did, I ran, and when I got back Augustine was gone but the tribe…” he squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see Fetch’s pity. “She’d left them alive but there’s concrete in them and the only way I can get it out...”

“Breathe, Delsin,” Fetch said. “C’mon, breathe. It’s alright. You’ll get to her.” Delsin fumbled for his phone.

“Gotta call Reggie,” he said. “My brother, he’s here with me, helping me, he’s a cop he can…” he finally found it and rang with shaking hands. “Reg,” he said when it was picked up. “Reg I found her, we’re going to be in… I’ll send you our location.”

“Are you alright?” Reggie asked. “Delsin, are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Delsin said, nodding too fast. “I’m fine.” He hung up and Fetch sat beside him.

“Make him climb to the roof,” she said and Delsin huffed out a laugh at the image of Reggie vaulting up windows and reaching the top of a ten storey building.

“He’d do it even if it killed him,” he said. “Come on.”

“We walk,” Fetch said. “You’re not in any shape to use your powers right now. You need to calm down before you do that.” They jumped down to the ground and Fetch was right, his heart was hammering in his chest and he…

“Delsin,” she said. “Hey. Look at me. You’ll be alright, and so will your tribe. Okay?”

It was something Reggie would say, and it helped a little.

“Okay,” Delsin said and she led the way to a warehouse. “Those dealers,” he began.

“You know what drugs did to me,” she snapped. “I’m not going to let one more dealer ruin anyone else’s life.”

“I know,” Delsin said.

XX

“Delsin,” Reggie said when he arrived. Delsin was visibly calmer now but still slightly pale and his hands trembled. “I’ve got you.” He held him tight and Delsin rested his head on his shoulder and closed his eyes, let his big brother protect him until Fetch cleared her throat.

“Hey,” she said. Reggie pulled away and scowled.

“You killed those dealers,” he said. “Why would you even…”

“Reggie,” Delsin said.

“No, Delsin,” Reggie said. “I’m not- I’m not going to call the DUP on her, but something has to be done. She can’t just…”

“I’ll take responsibility for her!” Delsin said, louder. “Look, just let me… Reggie, please. She’s my friend.” Reggie sighed.

“Responsibility was never your strongest suit,” he said. Delsin crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine.” He backed off reluctantly. “Just keep her under control, okay?”

“Reggie,” Delsin said, catching his arm. “Thank you.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay. You sounded pretty bad on the phone,” he said.

“I’m fine,” Delsin insisted, “Really.” Fetch snorted.

“I don’t want to lose you again,” Reggie said, softer, turning to look at Fetch for a moment. “Just be careful, okay?”

“I will,” Delsin said. “I’m not letting them take me again, Reggie.” Reggie squeezed his hand and walked out. Fetch waited until he was gone to speak.

“Seems like a nice guy, when he’s not advocating throwing me in a cage,” she said lightly. “You need someone who loves you like that, Del.” There was a weight to her words that Delsin knew came from the memory of Brent.

“Maybe cut down on the fireworks, hey?” Delsin suggested. “I mean, I love you and all Fetch, but I did just take responsibility for you.”

XX

Sitting atop the Space Needle, Fetch and Delsin dangled their feet over the edge and gazed at the dusky sky.

“Nice work,” Fetch said, gesturing at the flag behind them. “You had to tag the Space Needle, didn’t you? Nothing else good enough?” Delsin grinned.

“Have to make my mark somehow,” he said. “They’ve started calling me Banner Man on the street.” He made a face. “That just seems so lame.”

“Fits, though,” Fetch laughed. “You tagged every surface you could at Curdun Cay. What is it with you and eagles anyway?” She paused to examine the tag again. “She’ll know it’s you, you know.”

“I’m counting on it,” Delsin said. “I like you better outside Curdun Cay, you know. You laugh more.”

“You do too, Del,” she said. “You’re a lot happier, especially with your brother around.” Delsin couldn’t help the smile that flitted across his cheeks as he thought about Reggie. “Brent was always there for me, like that. I’m just glad you have someone.”

“Fetch…”

“It’s the past.” There was a shadow in her eyes, but he knew better than to dig deeper. “I’m okay, Del.”

And that was a lie if he ever heard one, but he let it pass. God knew he pretended to be okay hard enough that he wouldn’t want her bringing his house of cards down.

“This seems almost romantic,” she commented. “Bringing me to the Space Needle and all. You trying to tell me something, Del?”

“Sweetheart, there are only two women in my life, and you are most definitely one of them.”

“I’m in competition with Augustine?” she asked. “I don’t stand a chance.”

XX

“I don’t like her, Delsin,” Reggie said when they met up again.

“You made that abundantly clear,” Delsin said. “Look, she’s been through a lot. Her parents turned her in and her brother was all she had, then she… lost him.” The way she lost him was her story to tell. “Thank you, all the same.”

They sat in silence for a moment, looking out at the water.

“Did you mean it?” Reggie asked. “What you said about the civilians on the bridge?” Delsin sucked in a deep breath and let it out.

“No,” he said. “I… I care, Reggie, god, the thought of their families, but in the heat of the moment… in the arena it was the only time I ever had to let it all out, to vent my frustrations and pain and be more than a prisoner. I keep feeling her eyes on me, keep feeling her watching me and analysing my performance and sometimes…” he shook his head. “I don’t want to like killing, Reggie. But it was the only time I was in control in there. They were a long four years.” Reggie wrapped an arm around Delsin and held him close.

“For both of us,” he said. “I… I kept seeing your spray paint around Salmon Bay, it weathered and faded and I felt like I’d see you covering it up with something new and I’d have given anything to have you back. As it was painted over and as it faded naturally it felt like you were never there,” he admitted. “I missed you so much, every day. And there was nothing I could do to help you.”

“I’m back now,” Delsin murmured. “I came home, Reggie. Just like I always do.”

XX

Finding Eugene proved more of a challenge.

“That nerd is going to have barricaded himself away somewhere,” Fetch snorted. “We’ll never find him unless he wants to be found.”

“I want him on my side when we take the fight to Augustine,” Delsin said. “I know he’s been through hell but locking himself away again won’t help him.”

“More hell than either of us,” Fetch agreed. “Seven years in that hole, I can’t even imagine it. And when did this become a ‘we’ situation?”

“You’re coming, aren’t you?” Delsin asked, suddenly anxious. Fetch squeezed his hand.

“Of course I am, stop worrying so much,” she said. “I like this new you much better. Be him.” And that was the problem, wasn’t it? He wasn’t sure who he was anymore. Torn between Reggie’s little brother and the man Augustine had made him and someone else, someone who had been both, he didn’t know who he wanted to be.

“Del,” Fetch murmured soothingly. “You’re alright. She can’t control us anymore. We are who we want to be now, and if we need time to figure out who that is, then that’s okay. We have that time.”

Delsin breathed and reached for his phone.

“Yeah,” he said. Fetch glanced at the phone in his hand.

“Go on,” she said. “Talk to Reggie. Meet up with him somewhere. I have your number and you have mine. I’ll go look for Eugene.” He nodded as he dialled and Reggie picked up on the second ring.

“Del?” he asked. “Everything alright?”

“I need you,” Delsin said.

“I’m coming,” Reggie said instantly. “Just make sure your GPS tracking is on.”

XX

“Delsin,” Reggie said as he ran over to him, “Delsin, what’s wrong?” Delsin shook his head.

“I don’t know, Reg,” he said. “I just… I don’t know who I am anymore. I just want to be your little brother again. I’m scared, Reg,” he whispered. Reggie’s arms were tight around him.

“You _are_ my little brother,” he said. “What she did to you, that doesn’t change that. Not one bit. You don’t need to be scared. I’m here for you, always.”

“That day on the bridge, when we came, I was so scared, I just killed everyone.” Delsin’s voice was shaking. “But since then, since then I’ve been trying to just subdue them, to… to save them. It’s because of you, Reg.” He looked up. “I’m not as scared with you around. It’s… it’s easier, to be good with you here. And sometimes I think that… maybe, I’m better than she… than she made me think I was.”

“You are.” Reggie squeezed his hand. “Delsin, you are. And until you believe it yourself, I’ll be here to tell you.”

XX

“No news on Eugene,” Fetch said over the phone. “I’m still looking. Get whatever you needed to say off your chest?” Delsin smiled.

“Yes,” he said. “How do you hold who you are, Fetch? It’s so easy to just… be who she told us we were.”

“I remember Brent,” Fetch said. “I gave in once, to her. And I don’t regret it. But Brent wouldn’t want me to be… this. It’s not easy, it really isn’t, but it’s important enough that we have to try.”

“Yeah,” Delsin agreed, “It is. Where are you? I’ll join you and we’ll go find Eugene together.”

“Queen Anne,” Fetch said. “I’ll be waiting in front of that billboard you tagged. You really can’t help yourself, can you?”

“Like you can talk,” Delsin retorted. “I’ll be right there.”

XX

“He might be on the other side of the bridge,” Fetch suggested.

“The DUP closed that bridge,” Reggie protested. He’d insisted on following Delsin, who had been planning on walking it anyway. He didn’t like showing his powers off where the DUP might see, and the people on the streets were starting to recognise him. “You don’t even know if he’s there, it’s not worth the risk to cross.”

“He can fly, Reg,” Delsin said. “I’m pretty sure a closed bridge won’t stop him.”

“He might be on this side,” Reggie insisted. “You don’t know.”

“We’ve looked,” Fetch said. “We haven’t exactly made our presence subtle, after all.” She looked pointedly at the billboard on the building behind them. “If he was here he’d have found us. He’s probably too scared to emerge from his hole, but if we get close enough, he’ll find us. We just have to do the legwork. Besides, we’re Conduits. We can get past a closed bridge.” She rolled her eyes.

“I don’t like it,” Reggie finally said. “It’s not safe.”

“I can take care of myself,” Delsin said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“It’s not that I’m worried about.” Reggie drew in a deep breath. “When we arrived you were… terrifying, Delsin. And you had this manic grin and… you were enjoying yourself. I know you said you’re restraining yourself now, but I don’t want you to go there again, I don’t want to lose you.” Fetch politely zipped away in a bolt of neon.

“I won’t, Reg,” Delsin said. “Please, trust me.”

XX

“You may have been right,” Reggie admitted. “The DUP is all over the Lantern District, Del.”

“Then we get over there,” Delsin said. He could see Reggie shaking his head already.

“Del, its suicide. They blocked that bridge.”

“There’s no bridge that a Conduit can’t cross,” Fetch said. Reggie made a disgusted snort.

“Great. Now this is a conference call,” he said.

“Hi, Fetch,” Delsin said. “Reg, Eugene is over there. We have to get to him.”

“Fine,” Reggie said. “Just… call me if you make it.”

“Brothers,” Fetch said. “I’ll meet you there, Del.”

The bridge was very closed.

The troopers weren’t a problem and the auto-turrets weren’t a problem (those hurt the most but a well-aimed missile and they were pulverised), the problem came from the fact that _Augustine_ was there. Delsin’s eyes widened and he had to physically drag himself back from the memories of sitting across the table from her in Curdun Cay. She seemed completely unsurprised to see them.

“I was wondering when you’d cross,” she said. “Hello Abigail, hello Delsin.”

“Fuck you,” Fetch yelled from beside him; she’d gone slightly white.

“Now now, Miss Walker,” Augustine said. “Mr Rowe, is there something you want to say?”

“I’m only here for the tribe,” he said. “They’re _dying_ , I saw them…”

“I knew you were there,” she said. “None of them were willing to tell me where. If you come back I’ll heal them. I promise.” Delsin wavered at that. Fetch grabbed his hand.

“No, Delsin,” she said. “Her promises aren’t worth shit.” He straightened and drew in a deep breath.

“I know they aren’t,” he said. Augustine sighed.

“I should never have let you two become close,” she said. “You’re a bad influence on each other. Very well.”

The man she summoned was big; very big indeed. Delsin’s eyes went wide as he brought a concrete _whirlwind_ around himself.

“Shit,” Fetch said as he rose into the air and a large rock went flying their way. Helpfully, a number of neon lights lit up around them and this was just another test, she was playing with them like always…

It didn’t stop him from throwing everything he had at the guy.

It took their combined effort and a hell of a lot of neon, but when the guy was down Augustine smiled down at them.

“Very good!” she said. “I should have put you two together before. You’re an excellent team. When we get back we’ll have to see how far you can work.”

“No!” Fetch cried and Delsin looked down to see concrete forming around her legs and his, around their hands and his powers were gone…

He couldn’t go back.

That was when Eugene interfered. Two angels swooped out of the sky and picked him and Fetch up, carrying them away as Augustine just watched. They could only watch the world beneath them as they were carried blocks away and Delsin knew she wouldn’t follow.

It was not a good thing; she was just playing with them. Testing them.

“Del,” Fetch said, raising her voice to be heard over the wind, “You alright?”

“I nearly went back, Fetch,” Delsin said. “I nearly accepted her offer and I can’t go back, I won’t, not after everything. I got out.”

“You did,” Fetch agreed. “We did. And we won’t go back.”

That was when they were dropped at a great height and, when they landed, the concrete shattered.

“Fuck!” Fetch said. “Eugene!”

A hooded head popped up from an ajar grate beside them.

“I’m sorry,” Eugene said anxiously. “Did that hurt?”

XX

“This is not a video game, Eugene,” Delsin groused again. “That really hurt.”

“I couldn’t let her take you guys,” Eugene said. “I’m sorry, I really am. I had to break the concrete somehow.”

He’d found himself a bunker and promptly set up several TV systems to watch the news. There were dozens of DUP jackets littered about and Delsin poked one with his foot.

“What are these for?” he asked.

“I’ve been rescuing suspects,” Eugene said. “Bringing them back here and taking them off before letting them go.”

“That’s surprisingly social of you, Eugene,” Fetch said. “Doesn’t that involve people?” Eugene blushed.

“Well, my angels have been bringing them here,” he admitted.

“You are not kidnapping them off the street,” Delsin said. “Eugene!” Eugene raised his hands defensively.

“What else am I supposed to do?” he asked.

“Get your scrawny ass out there for real?” Fetch suggested and shook her head. “Well, even if it hurt, you did save us. Thanks for that. Now, Delsin here has to get to Augustine and get her concrete powers off her to save his tribe. How about you help us with that?”

XX

“Delsin!” Reggie said. “I heard that the DUP were on the bridge, that Augustine was there, I was so worried.” He held him tight to his chest.

“She offered to heal them if I went back with her.” Delsin didn’t look up at Reggie. “I almost said yes.”

“Her promises aren’t worth shit,” Fetch said at Reggie’s alarmed look. “Don’t worry, he told her to fuck off. That does mean we need to find another way to get to her, but that that hasn’t changed.”

Eugene coughed lightly.

“Uh, guys,” he said, “I don’t mean to interrupt but the Akurans have been taking the escaped suspects and are selling them back to the DUP.”

XX

Delsin didn’t mind heights, but being on a shipping container being hauled by a helicopter wasn’t his idea of a good time, and being on a shipping container held in the air only by Eugene’s angels even less of one.

Still, the suspects were rescued and all too grateful to flee and a fierce warmth sprang up in Delsin as they thanked them profusely.

“Hey Eugene,” he said, holding the phone to his ear as he watched the last of them disappear, “Next time you come along for the fireworks.”

XX

Leaving Fetch and Eugene behind, Delsin went for a long walk.

His head was clearer than it’d been in years and he wanted to enjoy it, the freedom he’d found, the complete lack of any shackles on him.

(Except that he did have them; the tribe was dying and it was because of him. He couldn’t just let them die. And even after he healed them he’d have to go on the run, because Augustine wouldn’t stop hunting him, wouldn’t stop hunting any of them, not until every single Conduit was locked up in her hellhole.)

He wanted nothing more than to go home, but he had to stop her, to put an end to the DUP before he could do that.

“Hey Reggie,” he said into the phone, “Have lunch with me, yeah?”

They had fish and chips. Smothering his fish in tartare sauce Delsin stared out over the water.

“The worst thing were the walls,” he said, unprompted. “There are no windows there and after Salmon Bay I felt like they were swallowing me, the corridors, enclosed and relentless.” He glanced up at Reggie, who’d stopped eating. “I’m not telling you because… I don’t know. You’re my brother, Reg. And you deserve to know what happened.”

“I’m sorry I let them take you,” Reggie said. Delsin snorted.

“There was nothing you could have done to stop them. Big men with guns. Maybe if it’d happened at home, it’d have been different. We could have hidden it. But you and I both know what I was like. I’d never have been able to hide it. I’d have… I don’t know, I’d have tried to be Superman. And we both know how that would have ended.”

Reggie sighed.

“Yeah,” he said. “I know. But maybe it’d never have come to light. Maybe you’d have lived your life without knowing about all this stuff, you know?”

“You’d have arrested me over and over and I’d have kept vandalising things- you know, I kept it up in that hole. With anything I could find, drew everywhere- and nothing would have changed. I’d be a loser with no job, maybe work in the cannery because Betty would have stuck her neck out for me. I’m not saying that this is better, but… it happened. There’s no point wishing otherwise.” He ate some more of his fish.

“It won’t be enough to get Augustine’s concrete powers,” he said quietly.

“What? Yes it will, you can pull them out and…”

“And I’ll have to go on the run,” Delsin said. “I’m a fugitive, Reg. A bio-terrorist on the run. You and I both know what that means. You guys would never be safe, because she knows that I’m going to come back home, that all she has to do is threaten you guys. I need to take her down, take her and the whole DUP down. Then I can go home, and it’ll be over. But not before.”

“You’re right,” Reggie said reluctantly. “I just… I want you home, Del.”

“I always come home, Reg,” Delsin said. “And I always will.”

XX

The DUP tower was guarded by a hundred men and had security systems all over the place. They had no way of getting in, they had to lure her out. But Delsin just didn’t know how, and he couldn’t reach Eugene or Fetch. He was more worried about that than he was willing to admit.

They could take care of themselves, he told himself. They’d be fine. They just wanted some time to themselves.

He got that.

The phone rang and he checked the caller ID; it was Reggie.

“Delsin!” he said as soon as he picked up, “There’s another incident, the DUP is all over the scene. I’ve seen the footage, its smoke like yours and that other guy’s, the guy who grabbed you-”

“Hank,” Delsin breathed. “Where?”

“Sending coordinates. Be careful, Del, please.”

“I will,” Delsin promised. “Thanks, Reg.”

He broke his rule; he neon dashed across the city to get there. Coughing slightly as the world came into focus, too bright, he stared around. A parking lot had been decimated. Cars were overturned and everything was on fire. He had to find out where Hank had gone.

“Reg, it’s a disaster zone,” he said, “Oh, crap…”

“Delsin? What is it?”

“DUP,” Delsin said, “Just give me…”

It was lucky everything was on fire; smoke was plentiful. Pulling it into himself he threw a sulphur bomb at the troopers surrounding him. While they were coughing and bent double he knocked their heads in and lay them down gently. The big ones he couldn’t subdue, but he tried to make it quick. They got a few good hits in and he winced as he rolled his shoulders and called Reggie again.

“Okay,” he said, sounding calmer than he felt, “I’m going to try and figure out where he went.”

“Are you alright?” Reggie asked. Delsin looked around at the knocked out troopers and the two bodies and breathed deep, idly pulling more smoke into himself.

“I’m fine,” he said. “There were only two of them I couldn’t knock out. I’m okay, Reg.”

“Good,” Reggie said. “Del, I’m proud of you.”

“I’m afraid I haven’t done anything to deserve that,” Delsin said. “I see his trail. I’ll call you later.”

He was so determined to follow the trail that he got sloppy; right at the end Hank was waiting for him and knocked him out cold as soon as he materialised. He only had time to utter a small “ow” before his head hit the ground.

XX

His phone was ringing.

It was ringing very loudly, right between his ears, and Delsin pushed himself to a sitting position with a wince. Feeling for it in his pocket he didn’t see it and panicked for a moment before seeing it on the ground beside him. He snatched it up and saw it really was ringing, not just his head, and that it was an unknown number.

“Hello?”

“Hey kid,” Hank said, “Sorry about that. You weren’t thinking straight, I need to talk to you but not when you’re like that.”

“Hank,” he said.

“Yeah. Meet me on the waterfront when you’re not mad or nothing, yeah? It’s Augustine, she caught those kids we were with. I know where she’s holding them.” The breath fled Delsin’s chest and he was so glad he was sitting. “I’ll see you there.”

Hank hung up and Delsin called Reggie.

“Reggie,” he cried, frantic, “It’s Augustine, she’s got Eugene and Fetch…”

“I heard,” Reggie said grimly. “I don’t trust this guy, Del. I don’t trust him at all. He did this to you, and where’s he been this whole time?”

“It’s a trap,” Delsin said. “I know it’s a trap. She’s got eyes on us the whole time, this is all one big game, one big test, but I can’t let her take them back Reg, I can’t.”

“Delsin, just… she’ll take you back if you get this wrong. I can’t let her do that. There has to be another way.”

Delsin really, really wished there was.

“She’s out of her tower,” he said. “I have to do this, Reg. It’s the only chance we’ll get. I just have to be ready.”

He wasn’t ready for this, but he had to be. Fetch and Eugene deserved better, they deserved to be free, he had to save his tribe. His people.

All of them.

Reggie was there when he arrived and so was Hank, still in prison orange.

“You sure you wanna bring the cop?” Hank asked him.

“He’s my brother,” Delsin said. He didn’t want to put Reggie in harm’s way but he didn’t want to do this without him either.

“It’s not safe,” Hank persisted. “It’s not smart.”

“I go or this doesn’t happen,” Reggie said. Hank looked between them and shrugged.

“Up to you, man,” he said. “She’s got them over there, on that island.” Delsin followed his finger and winced a little; there were a lot of DUP agents there. “I know a way in, there’s a vent leading to it, just gotta blow it open. Don’t know how your brother will get there, but…”

“I’ll commandeer a boat,” Reggie said. “Meet you there.” Hank turned to him.

“Why can you do that?” he asked. “I could do that!”

“Because I’m cop,” Reggie said, “And can do it legally. If _you_ do it, I’ll arrest you.” He smiled sweetly and Hank looked at Delsin, who had been arrested enough by Reggie that he shrugged.

“He will too,” he said.

“Fine, fine,” Hank said. “You and me kid, let’s go.” He went to the vent and waited impatiently.

“Be careful, Del,” Reggie said. “This is a trap, be ready for her to show up.”

“I will be,” Delsin said and hugged him tightly. “Thank you, Reggie. For everything.”

“Anything for you,” Reggie said. “Remember, you’re better than she tried to make you. Okay?”

“Okay,” Delsin said. “Now go.”

“Come on,” Hank called and Delsin gave his brother one last hug before going to him.

“Alright, let’s go,” he said, eyeing the vent before smoking through it.

It was a long vent; he emerged shaky and unused to solid form, and surrounded by DUP. It was instinct to leap up and slam into the ground, sending them flying before he caught himself.

Not that it mattered; Hank wasn’t holding back. He was determined to. He’d promised Reggie he was getting better.

“If we take these columns down,” Hank said, “She’ll have to come.”

He didn’t like Hank, and he didn’t trust him. He really didn’t want to work with him. Pushing the column down felt _good_ though, like a real workout. It was hard work, and not much was these days, not much really stretched his muscles.

“Damn,” he said, looking at the fallen column.

“Let’s keep going,” Hank urged him. “We don’t have much time.”

He wasn’t surprised when Hank led him right to Augustine. He knew first-hand how persuasive she could be, remembered how her words had started to make sense to him, how he’d had to actively fight what she was doing to him.

He was ready to avoid her attack, but wasn’t fast enough. With a sweep of her hand the concrete had encased his hands and he was powerless again, furious at himself. He’d been so sure he was ready, he’d been primed for the attack.

And she’d still got him.

As it grew around his feet he struggled and she moved closer.

“Delsin, did you think I didn’t know you?” she asked. “You always were best motivated by family. Why did you think I let you get close to them, why do you think I let your brother move around the city?” She gestured to Fetch and Eugene, helpless and staring, horrified, from a concrete prison. “You did very well, Delsin. Now we can go home, all of us.”

“No,” Delsin spat. “Curdun Cay is not home.”

“I did my bit,” Hank said. “I brought him to you.”

“You can go free, Henry, as promised,” Augustine said, waving a hand. Delsin barely noticed him dash away.

“When my brother finds you,” Delsin said.

“He’ll what?” Augustine asked.

Like an angel, Reggie emerged at that very moment with a rocket launcher in his hand.

“This,” he said simply, firing. The blast sent Delsin flying but cracked the concrete around his feet, while not his arms. It was better. Delsin struggled to his feet and it’d been a long time since his arms were weighed down so. “Delsin, come on!”

Delsin looked around for Augustine but couldn’t see her. He was sure she was still around.

“I’m coming!” he called, starting forwards, weight pulling his shoulders forwards; already they were starting to ache. “Oh, _crap_ …” he threw himself out of the way of the auto-turret just in time and waited for it to stop firing before making a break for it. It hit him several times and _shit_ that hurt and apparently his fast healing thing still worked, even in this.

Good to know.

“Delsin!” Reggie called. “She’ll be back soon!”

There were more of them, of course, and prisoners in the cages beneath the walkway but he could do nothing to help them.

“I’m coming, Reggie! There’s turrets here!” Trying to concentrate the fire on his bound arms he made his way painfully slowly across the walkway, hiding behind the barricades to catch his breath and heal. Never had he been so glad for his fast healing. Finally he made it across and to his brother.

“Just get this thing off me,” he said, barely-contained panic in his voice. “Fetch, Eugene, you okay?”

“We’re fine,” Fetch said. “Just get that shit off you and this shit off us.”

“Put your hands down,” Reggie said, “We’re doing this the old-fashioned way.”

“What?” Delsin asked as he complied, suddenly alarmed, and Reggie slammed the rocket launcher into the concrete. It shattered and Eugene winced as he rubbed his wrists.

“Ow!” he complained. “Thanks.” Reggie grinned at him.

“How touching,” Augustine said and he whirled around. “Now you’ve done that, though, I’d like to break this party up.” She waved a hand and the prison around Fetch and Eugene closed and dropped like a stone into the ocean.

“No!” Delsin cried as he went flying back and scrabbled for the edge, grabbing Reggie’s hand as he fell past him. His brother was heavy and he knew he wasn’t that heavy, he looked down…

Concrete was growing up Reggie’s legs and his eyes went wide with horror.

“No!” he said, “No, no no…”

Reggie looked down at himself as it reached his waist. Delsin was strong, but his hands were shaking and he could feel himself starting to slip.

“Delsin, I’m so proud of you,” Reggie said. “I’m so proud of the man you’ve become. Remember that you’re better than she tried to make you. I love you.”

It was up to his neck now and he let go.

“Reggie!” Delsin screamed as he watched Reggie fall into the water. There was only murder in his eyes when he vaulted himself over the edge and faced Augustine.

“He didn’t do a fucking thing to you,” he said.

“This is who you are, Delsin,” Augustine said. “It’s time you accept that.”

When he orbital dropped on her it was with nothing but rage in his heart.

XX

She got away and the island sank to rubble; he barely got out in time, dragged himself onto the bridge and lay there, waterlogged and exhausted before passing out. He was so tired he didn’t even see Reggie’s face in his dreams. He wasn’t sure he dreamed at all.

He woke up at sunset and knew that the only reason he was still where he lay was because she was testing him again. He stared into the water which served as a grave for the three people he loved most in the world and the only reason he tamped down the black rage that filled him was because one of them was Reggie, and Reggie’s last words to him were to remind him of who he was.

Better than she had tried to make him.

He had to find her, he had to find Hank. How, though? His phone was dead and he had no idea where he’d gone.

A DUP radio lay abandoned on the ground and he grabbed it, heard Hank’s voice over it.

“We had a deal!” he was protesting.

“You had a deal with my boss, not me,” the DUP trooper said. “I don’t like bio-terrorists. And you turned against your own kind.”

“Your boss will be mighty unhappy when she finds out you’re going back on the deal!”

He followed the signal.

He arrived to an ambush; he knew that if he fought now he’d obliterate them all and that would dishonour Reggie’s memory, Fetch’s sage advice never to drive or fight when he was mad or sad.

Right now he was both.

He ran.

Augustine’s voice over the speakers around the city calmly announced that he was a bio-terrorist, that he had to be stopped for order to return to the city, and he stuck to the rooftops, hitting the ground only when he had to, running from the gunfire and the people both.

He followed Hank’s trail and found him at the docks.

He punched him. Hard. Hank collapsed and he hauled him to his feet, was holding him when he came to a few minutes later.

“She had my daughter,” Hank said.

“She killed my brother!” Delsin shouted in his face and Hank flinched.

“She said she’d not hurt anyone,” Hank said, “She had my daughter…”

“And you believed her?” Delsin asked, incredulous. He shoved Hank away. “Her promises aren’t worth shit!”

“I’m sorry about your brother. Really.”

Somewhere in the harbour a boat light turned on and a voice called “Daddy?” Delsin grabbed Hank by the throat.

“My brother didn’t hurt anyone!” he shouted. “He didn’t… and he’s _dead_ …”

He collapsed, pulling Hank with him, sobbing. Hank broke his grip quickly and backed up.

“I’m sorry. Really.”

Delsin could kill him right now, but at that moment the girl called out to her father again and he knew that if Reggie was here he’d be telling him to let him go.

“Go,” he said, not looking at Hank. “Just… go.”

“You could come with us,” Hank said. “Disappear.” Delsin choked out a laugh.

“No I can’t,” he said. He still had family to protect. He’d failed Reggie, Fetch and Eugene but the tribe still depended on him. “Go.” _Before I change my mind. Before I lose myself._

Hank went and Delsin rose, ever more determined to protect the only people he hadn’t failed.

He was going to find Augustine and make her give him her power if it was the last thing he did.

XX

Augustine was still broadcasting to the city when he neon dashed through it to the tower, ignoring once again the DUP agents but this time out of urgency and not fear. He no longer feared what he could do to them. He was deadly calm.

There were a lot of men at the tower entrance and he hesitated, staring at the security. He couldn’t get through that, surely. He couldn’t zip up the side. He’d be electrocuted and fall and…

There was a switch on the building opposite it and while it didn’t shut down the whole grid it shut it down in front of the vent, and that would do.

He was surprised and delighted when Fetch came.

“She dropped you!” he cried.

“We’re Conduits,” Fetch said. “It takes more than that to kill us. You’re our friend and you need our help. You didn’t think we’d leave you alone, did you?”

“Where’s your brother?” Eugene asked and Delsin just shook his head. For a moment they just stared in shock before Fetch ran over and hugged him tightly.

“I’m so sorry,” she breathed. “I’m so sorry, Del.”

“We need to get going,” Eugene said. “There’s more coming.” Fetch nodded and pulled back.

“Yeah,” she said. “Come on, Del- we’ll make her pay.”

XX

With Fetch and Eugene he made his way into the tower, but he was to fight Augustine alone. It was exactly how he wanted it. She’d hurt all of them, but he couldn’t let any of them in on this.

This was his grief and his vengeance.

She kept spinning around in her concrete whirlwind and he’d never seen her use her powers, not like this. Encasing people, yes, but not offensively (and yet he could not shake the feeling she was holding back even now, and it _infuriated_ him.) The video screens in the room kept turning back on no matter how often he drained them and he kept calling down swords and heavenly wrath on her. Occasionally she fell from the sky and he flew over on virtual wings to kick her hard, no mercy in him.

And then it got too much, and he exploded.

She lay on the ground coughing and he stormed over. She held her hands up.

“You want my power?” she asked. “Fine. Take it.”

He was used, by now, to seeing people’s stories when he did this, but he’d never thought to see hers. He watched in horror as she turned on a little girl who depended on her and then her own kind, and she tried to justify it as protection.

“Protection?” he asked. “That’s what you call what you did to us?”

“I made you stronger, Delsin,” she said. “We haven’t had to kill a single Conduit in seven years. Do you know what would happen if the DUP didn’t exist? Conduits and humans cannot coexist.”

“It’s better than being tortured!” Delsin cried. “I am never going to forgive what you did to me, to Fetch, to Eugene- to _anyone._ To _Reggie_.”

She sighed.

“I suppose I should have expected this,” she said, rising to her feet and calling an enormous concrete construct around her. Delsin’s eyes went very, very wide.

“Holy,” he breathed.

“You have what you wanted: my power. The only difference is, I’ve had seven years to learn how to use it.”

“Eugene, I need blast cores in here _now_ ,” Delsin cried.

While in Curdun Cay he had learned that while he could learn new abilities naturally over time, blast cores would speed up the progress considerably. All he could do was dodge her attacks, the video screens shattered, no neon and no smoke in the room.

He had never considered that, as powerful as he was, she was _so much more_ than him- and she knew his every trick.

The blast core landed in the room several tense minutes later and he ran for it, glad for the renewed energy that it provided. With every new trick the cores showed him the footing got more even, but he was still hopelessly outmatched, trying desperately just to survive.

He would never quite be sure how he managed it in the end but she lay encased in concrete, eyes wide in horror and pain, and he leaned down over her.

“Yeah,” he said, “I’m told that hurts.”

It would be so easy to finish the job, to crush her, to drop her tower atop her. He could feel the concrete around him, at his fingertips, underneath his feet. He could _avenge_ …

And what good would it do? It’d only prove her right about Conduits, about _him_. Reggie’s last words had been to tell him that she wasn’t.

He left her there for the cops to bring in and exposed what the DUP really was to the world. But there was no victory in it, even as his fellow inmates were released en masse from Curdun Cay Station. The DUP was dismantled and disgraced, his suffering and everyone else’s finally avenged.

But he had to return home without Reggie, tell Betty, tell everyone that he was dead. He healed everyone left and mourned everyone lost, added their names to the ledger against him, and picked up his spray paint again.

There was a billboard atop the cannery in honour of Reggie becoming sheriff of Salmon Bay. He painted the Seattle skyline on it, and his brother watching over him, as he always had, and added the words last.

 _In loving memory of Reggie Rowe_.

And he wept.

XX

He woke with nightmares often. Of Curdun Cay, of Augustine and of Reggie letting go. Sometimes he dreamed that he fell with him. Those were his good dreams.

“Delsin,” Betty said as he woke again with a start, covered in sweat and gasping for breath, “Come here.” She held him tight and he wanted Reggie to be holding him but Reggie couldn’t, Reggie was dead and it was his fault. “Delsin, it’s alright. It’s over. You’re home.”


End file.
